DOI Heft:
No. 332 (November 1920)
DOI Artikel:Taylor, Ernest Archibald: Some pictures by John Duncan, A. R. S. A.
DOI Artikel:Taylor, Horace: The poster revival, [2]: Mr. F. Gregory Brown$nElektronische Ressource
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21401#0162
THE POSTER REVIVAL
once proclaimed by his Hymn to the Rose,
purchased by the Scottish Modern Arts
Association, and The Coming of Bride,
acquired for the Glasgow Corporation
Art Gallery and already reproduced in
The Studio. Nor will any who were
fortunate enough to witness his Celtic
group in a pageant some few years ago in
Edinburgh easily forget its colour and
impressive arrangement. At present he
is to be found on the island of Iona,
within sight of those other isles, which
call up the past in story he is never too
weary to listen to amidst the silence of
the hills, or lingering awhile in some
humble cottage to join in the songs of
ancient days lulled into melody by the
sea playing on its white shelled shores.
E. A. Taylor.
THE POSTER REVIVAL. II. MR. F.
GREGORY BROWN. 000
PERHAPS the best-known posters in
the campaign of the London Electric
Railways have been those advising the
pedestrian how to avoid being run over.
This solicitude on the part of an under-
ground railway for the perils of the
traveller above ground might almost seem
to have a hint of irony, were it not that
the company also controls the motor omni-
buses, which are the principal terror of
the streets. There is also on the surface
something ambiguous in decorating the
walls of this submerged tunnel with
pictures of sunny farms and country lanes,
to tantalise passengers deprived of the
sky and sunlight. But a moment's thought
reveals the perfect propriety of both these
types of decoration. What could be more
encouraging to the traveller in the bowels of
the earth than to reflect on the dangers
he is escaping and the pleasant country-
side into which after a swift sojourn below
he is to be transported ! The majority
of the posters which gave point and ex-
pression to this aspect of the Tube
were the work of Mr. F. Gregory Brown,
who has since devoted himself almost
entirely to this and kindred branches of
what is called commercial art. 0 0
Mr. Gregory Brown has had the ad-
vantage of escaping the usual methods of
artistic training in this country. Had he
been a student at the Slade or Royal
Academy Schools he might have painted
the accepted type of easel picture and
exhibited regularly at the New English
Art Club or Burlington House. Both
these institutions encourage a superior
attitude towards art that is applied to a
useful purpose, very much as the writer
of books looks down on the journalist.
Fortunately for our hoardings Mr. Gregory
Brown was early apprenticed to metal-
work, and thus began as a designer for
applied art. This is an important factor.
The limitations imposed by a craft are
bound to have a salutary effect on any
artist. aa0a00
At the early age of sixteen the young
Gregory Brown exhibited two pictures
of Thames barges at the Shipping Ex-
hibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery,
STALBANS (g%\
POSTER FOR THE LONDON
UNDERGROUND ELECTRIC
RAILWAY. BY F. GREGORY
BROWN, R.B.A.
147
once proclaimed by his Hymn to the Rose,
purchased by the Scottish Modern Arts
Association, and The Coming of Bride,
acquired for the Glasgow Corporation
Art Gallery and already reproduced in
The Studio. Nor will any who were
fortunate enough to witness his Celtic
group in a pageant some few years ago in
Edinburgh easily forget its colour and
impressive arrangement. At present he
is to be found on the island of Iona,
within sight of those other isles, which
call up the past in story he is never too
weary to listen to amidst the silence of
the hills, or lingering awhile in some
humble cottage to join in the songs of
ancient days lulled into melody by the
sea playing on its white shelled shores.
E. A. Taylor.
THE POSTER REVIVAL. II. MR. F.
GREGORY BROWN. 000
PERHAPS the best-known posters in
the campaign of the London Electric
Railways have been those advising the
pedestrian how to avoid being run over.
This solicitude on the part of an under-
ground railway for the perils of the
traveller above ground might almost seem
to have a hint of irony, were it not that
the company also controls the motor omni-
buses, which are the principal terror of
the streets. There is also on the surface
something ambiguous in decorating the
walls of this submerged tunnel with
pictures of sunny farms and country lanes,
to tantalise passengers deprived of the
sky and sunlight. But a moment's thought
reveals the perfect propriety of both these
types of decoration. What could be more
encouraging to the traveller in the bowels of
the earth than to reflect on the dangers
he is escaping and the pleasant country-
side into which after a swift sojourn below
he is to be transported ! The majority
of the posters which gave point and ex-
pression to this aspect of the Tube
were the work of Mr. F. Gregory Brown,
who has since devoted himself almost
entirely to this and kindred branches of
what is called commercial art. 0 0
Mr. Gregory Brown has had the ad-
vantage of escaping the usual methods of
artistic training in this country. Had he
been a student at the Slade or Royal
Academy Schools he might have painted
the accepted type of easel picture and
exhibited regularly at the New English
Art Club or Burlington House. Both
these institutions encourage a superior
attitude towards art that is applied to a
useful purpose, very much as the writer
of books looks down on the journalist.
Fortunately for our hoardings Mr. Gregory
Brown was early apprenticed to metal-
work, and thus began as a designer for
applied art. This is an important factor.
The limitations imposed by a craft are
bound to have a salutary effect on any
artist. aa0a00
At the early age of sixteen the young
Gregory Brown exhibited two pictures
of Thames barges at the Shipping Ex-
hibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery,
STALBANS (g%\
POSTER FOR THE LONDON
UNDERGROUND ELECTRIC
RAILWAY. BY F. GREGORY
BROWN, R.B.A.
147